Patriot Health Digest
Eating After 7PM — Myth Or Fact?
We’ve heard this advice for years: “Don’t eat after a certain time to shed fat.” But diet advice like this are usually questionable and come from questionable sources.
Well, now we have some real evidence to show that it’s a good idea to avoid night-time meals and instead “frontload” your eating in the daytime.
The Proof
Researchers looked at what they labeled “prolonged delayed eating.” Which simply means eating before bed.
One group ate their meals in normal daytime hours. Three meals and two smaller snacks between 8 AM and 7 PM. They hit the sack at 11 PM.
After doing this for 8 weeks, they took a 2 week break, then switched things up and started eating late-night meals.
They still had the same meals, but they shifted their eating times to include 11 PM. Then the people went to sleep right after their last meal. This also lasted 8 weeks.
Surrounding this study, the participants had numerous metabolic measures and had their blood drawn. The study controlled for sleep-wake cycles, macronutrient intake and exercise.
The End Result
Late-night eating resulted in greater fat gain. Fat metabolism was harmed and late-night eating lead to metabolizing more carbs and less lipids. It also increased insulin, cholesterol, fasting glucose, and triglyceride.
All that put together gives you a negative metabolic profile.
What’s more, during the experiment, ghrelin, the appetite hormone, increased earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Leptin, the “fullness” hormone, increased later. Researchers believe that early meals help you keep full for longer.
So there. The myth has now been proven to be correct. Do not eat meals close to bedtime.
